The most recent campaign of the Philae Temple Graffiti Project took place from September 25th to September 30th, 2021. In this third campaign at the site, Dr. Jitse H.F. Dijkstra (University of Ottawa) was joined by the team’s newest member, Dr. Nick Hedley (Simon Fraser University), to complete further recording of the graffiti from the site.
With the addition of Dr. Hedley, and the generous funding provided by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant (until 2026), we are able to incorporate a number of advanced recording techniques in our existing project. Notably, Dr. Hedley has offered his technological expertise to record the architecture and graffiti within the temple complex using techniques such as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), laser scanning, 3D capturing and modelling, and photogrammetry. These technologies will facilitate the creation of multi-scalar images of the entire complex, allowing us to extract details from the buildings at a variety of different scales. We can now look at the graffiti within macro contexts, including their dispersal across whole buildings, while also affording us the opportunity to assess their contexts at the micro-level – that is, their placement on individual blocks. By using capturing methods that allow for high resolutions of the images, we hope to also look at the possibility of distinguishing the different hands at work in the creation of each graffito.
These advanced recording methods supplement the ongoing work of the other team members, who are working on drawings of individual graffiti (Drs. Dijkstra and Bélanger-Sarrazin) and detailed floor plans recorded with a Total Station (Dr. Higgins).
In the 2021 campaign, the project had three main objectives:
– to use advanced recording methods, especially photogrammetry, to record all remaining walls of the Mammisi and as many as possible of the other buildings covered by the project (the Isis temple and the area in front of it, between the two pylons)
– to record 41 graffiti on the western and northern outside walls of the Mammisi that have remained unrecorded so far and to check the drawings of a series of graffiti made in previous seasons
– to use Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to record some particularly important, or unclear, graffiti.
These objectives were entirely met. The team was able to record the remaining walls of the Mammisi, as well as the graffiti on the walls of the First and Second Pylon, and the Second East Colonnade. The advanced imaging accomplished this season was accompanied by the recording of the 41 additional graffiti from the Mammisi, as well as the checking of several previously identified graffiti for which we had additional questions. Moreover, RTI was used in the recording and checking of four graffiti.
We look forward to keeping you updated on future campaigns at Philae, as we continue with our Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded work over the next 5 years. We leave you now with a video of Dr. Dijkstra talking about his favourite graffito at the site.
Please note that all photos and videos posted to this website are copyright of the Philae Temple Graffiti Project and cannot be reproduced without the explicit consent of the project directors.
Philae Graffiti 